Electronics are increasingly pervasive as new applications in mobile, wearable, and implantable devices for communication, computation, and sensing are introduced. Many of these applications require high-mobility, low-cost, large-area, and flexible semiconductor devices that require new fabrication processes to meet the demand.
Colloidal, inorganic nanocrystals (NCs) are a promising class of materials for use in electronics. NCs are typically only used to form a single element in electronic devices, however, with the remainder of the device architecture realized with characteristically costly and slow, conventional vacuum-based deposition methods. Unlike conventional microelectronics, protocols for the integration of multiple, dissimilar, NC materials to construct high-performance devices do not exist. Integration is a challenging feat and requires the development of processes that do not detrimentally alter NC surface chemistry and that allow the complex stacking and patterning of NC thin films, and at the same time the design of chemically compatible, structurally stable, and physically cooperative materials and interfaces to achieve suitable device function.